Duping pirates and endangering journalists

It could have been the script for a John Le
Carré intrigue. On Saturday October 12, Belgian security agents arrested Mohamed
Abdi Hassan, a kingpin of Somali piracy known as "Afweyne" (Big Mouth), and his
associate Mohammed M. Aden, nicknamed Tiiceey, a former governor of Himan and
Heeb province.

They were snatched on their arrival at
Brussels airport as they were disembarking from a flight from Nairobi and immediately
sent to prison in Bruges under charges of "piracy, kidnapping, and organized
crime" for their alleged participation in the capture of a Belgian ship and of
its crew off the Somali coast in 2009.

How did it happen that these two men
literally jumped into the lion's den? Because they were duped
in a sting operation. Since the end of the 70-day hostage taking--which had been
resolved after a ransom was delivered to the pirates--Belgian authorities had
vowed to grab the authors and their sponsors. Convinced that an international
warrant would not be acted upon by Somali authorities, the Belgian police
decided to go undercover.

According to Belgian federal prosecutor Johan
Delmulle, police agents posing as documentary filmmakers contacted Tiiceey and
asked him to put them in touch with Mohamed Abdi Hassan. After months of
discussions, the pirate was eventually tricked into traveling to Brussels with
a promise that he would be the chief adviser for a documentary film "reflecting
his life of piracy on the high seas."

The sting operation was met with applause
in Brussels. "This arrest marks a significant step in the fight against piracy,"
said
a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. The ruse, however, immediately
raised eyebrows among journalists. "By pretending to be journalists, did the
super-heroes of our security services realize that they put in danger all
journalists in conflict areas?" wrote Belgian public radio RTBF journalist
Thomas Nagant on his Facebook page. "It
is a question of principle: resorting to unconventional stratagems is not
undignified as such, but how far can you go? You cross an unacceptable line by pretending
to be a journalist, a humanitarian actor, or a diplomat."

The Belgian association of professional journalists
(AJP, the French-speaking section) also vividly
expressed its concerns. "The recourse to false journalists or news documentary
filmmakers may seriously endanger news professionals who in their assignments
may have to contact lawless people," it said in press release published today.
"This method undermines trust with the public and in particular with journalist
sources. This relation of trust is essential to the exercise of the freedom to
report," it said. The AJP also "urges insistently that the security services
ban all recourse to such methods."

As CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon told Slate
on Wednesday, "It's a very common perception that journalists are spies." He
added, "International journalists operating in Somalia are incredibly vulnerable.
There have been kidnappings and ransom demands. Any action that fuels that
perception potentially makes that incredibly risky work even more risky."

CPJ Europe Representative Marthoz is a Belgian journalist and longtime press freedom and human rights activist. He teaches international journalism at the Université catholique de Louvain and is a columnist for the Belgian daily Le Soir.

Comments

As CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon told Slate on Wednesday, "It's a very common perception that journalists are spies." He added, "International journalists operating in Somalia are incredibly vulnerable. There have been kidnappings and ransom demands. Any action that fuels that perception potentially makes that incredibly risky work even more risky."